The ultimate strength of silica nanowires

The ultimate strength of silica nanowires

The ultimate strength of silica nanowires

Silica nanowires (SN) manufactured from optical fibers using a top-down approach have in the recent years attracted much attention because of their use for photonic applications and sensors. Until 2003, surface roughness and inhomogeneity appear to have limited the use of SNs for optical applications.

SN and sub-wavelength wires offer a number of unique optical and mechanical properties, including: 1) Large evanescent fields; 2) High nonlinearity; 3) Extreme flexibility and configurability; and 4) Low-loss interconnection to other optical fibers and fiberised components. In fact SN are fabricated by adiabatically stretching optical fibers and thus preserve the original dimensions of the optical fiber at their input and output allowing the manipulation of a single nanowire without the expensive instrumentation typical of the nanoscience and nanotechnology worlds.

Abstract

Silica nanowires (SN) manufactured from optical fibers using a top-down approach have in the recent years attracted much attention because of their use for photonic applications and sensors. Until 2003, surface roughness and inhomogeneity appear to have limited the use of SNs for optical applications.

SN and sub-wavelength wires offer a number of unique optical and mechanical properties, including: 1) Large evanescent fields; 2) High nonlinearity; 3) Extreme flexibility and configurability; and 4) Low-loss interconnection to other optical fibers and fiberised components. In fact SN are fabricated by adiabatically stretching optical fibers and thus preserve the original dimensions of the optical fiber at their input and output allowing the manipulation of a single nanowire without the expensive instrumentation typical of the nanoscience and nanotechnology worlds.